By Jeff Brumley
The president of an African-American Baptist group in Washington, D.C., has criticized the city’s mayor over reports that the politician uninvited an ex-gay singer from performing in a Civil Rights commemoration event.
The singer, pastor and 2010 Grammy Award winner Donnie McLurkin, has described himself as being “delivered from the ‘sin of homosexuality,’” the Christian Post reported in stories it published today about the situation.
McClurkin said D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray gave in to the demands of gay-rights activists opposed to his participation in “Reflections on Peace: from Ghandi to King,” an MLK Memorial concert held Aug. 10.
The Post reported that Patrick J. Walker, leader of the Baptist Convention of the District of Columbia and Vicinity, provided a statement describing Gray’s action as hypocritical on civil rights.
“Mayor Gray continually purports that he supports civil rights. What we’ve come to know, however, is that all civil rights in the faith community are not created equal,” according to Walker’s statement to the Post.
“This is an outright infringement of Pastor McClurkin’s civil rights. How ironic is that?”
The mayor’s office apparently didn’t think so. It told The Washington Post that McClurkin’s exclusion was in keeping with the Civil Rights movement.
“The Arts and Humanities Commission and Donnie McClurkin’s management decided that it would be best for him to withdraw because the purpose of the event [was] to bring people together,” a mayoral spokesman told The Washington Post. “Mayor Gray said the purpose of the event [was] to promote peace and harmony. That is what King was all about.”